How Much Propane is Used....

I'm the same as everyone else - Norcold 1200 and it seems to use very little LP. It would be really neat to have a $1000 gas flow gauge on the line so I could see exactly how much I'm using but I'm not quite that curious... :-)

As full timers, we only refill our 30 lb propane tanks once a year (each tank once). Even using our furnace in cold weather and using our onboard propane generator occasionally does not really impact our propane usage. We dry camped quite a bit during our 2014 Alaska trip and still only had one additional propane fill. Propane is not that expensive so we do not worry about tank fills.

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We did a lot of boondocking in the summers so used propane all the time. We were amazed at how long it lasted and it did for about 4-5 months even with cooking and hot water.

The furnace is what uses a lot of propane.

In summer my propane use is very low. Fridge, water heater, furnace once in a while briefly. If I'm not using the furnace I almost don't count the propane use. The gauge just creeps downward and I usually schedule a refill weeks in advance.

My propane is used much more in the winter (furnace) when nights are in 20s and some days don't get out of 40s. This is the only time I've had to hunt down propane and make unscheduled stop for it.

As a very rough rule of thumb, the fridge uses somewhere around a pound of propane per day. Obviously there are many variables with the size of the fridge, the ambient temperature, how frequently it's opened, etc.

donnieR32 wrote:
Good points. Considering it is summer I guess I'm only using the propane for the fridge while driving (if I'm doing that) and for the water heater. Guess I should be good for a while.

I never found a need to run my water heater during transit. Even when I get to my campsite ill forget and finally turn it on right before shower time lol. Cold water dish washing never really bothered me unless im doing some heavy grease fighting

As mentioned, frig will use minimal propane. Where you will really use up propane is when you need to use your furnace.

We dry camp for two weeks straight every August, and the fridge is on LP the entire time. We don't even put a dent in a full propane tank with the fridge. They're extremely efficient on LP. I even use it on gas when I have full hookups, because it maintains its temperature better on LP than on A/C.

A really big burner for rv fridge is 2200btu/hr.
The duty cycle is roughly 1/3 so roughly 800btu/hr actual burn

1 gallon of propane has roughly 91,000btu




Stove top burners..............5000 to 9000 btu/hr
Water heater...................8000 to 12,000 btu/hr
Furnace........................12,000 to 40,000 btu/hr